
nass_ 
Book-_ 



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WORLDLY 

WISDOM 

from 

ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN 




ll 



Edited and Arranged 

By F. S. BIGELOW 



PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY 



J 



r? 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE 



Several of the paragraphs in this little volume 

are used through the courtesy of The 

Century Company, publishers 

of the complete works of 

Abraham Lincoln. 

trffc?JtTTt3[nl 



Copyright, 1908, by 
Howard E. Altemus 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Tv/o Copies Received 

NOV \2 \dOQ 

CopyniiHt entry 
CLASS^ Oi. ^XC. No. 
^ copy 3. J 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



A 



MAN cannot prove 

a negative, but he 

has a right to claim 

that when a man 

makes an affirmative charge, 

he must offer some proof. 

Towering genius disdains a 
beaten path. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

AN honest laborer digs 
coal at about seventy 
w cents a day, while 
the President digs 
abstractions at about seventy dol- 
lars a day. The coal is clearly 
vi^orth more than the abstract- 
ions^ and yet what a monstrous 
inequality in the prices! Does 
the President, for this reason, 
propose to abolish the Presi- 
dency ? He does not, and he 
ought not. 



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^ 1 1 *^ 

WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

A MAN watches his 
pear-tree day after 
day, impatient for 
the ripening of the 
fruit. Let him attempt to 
force the process, and he may 
spoil both fruit and tree. But 
let him patiently wait^ and the 
ripe fruit at length falls into 
his lap. 

Gold is good in its place; 
but living, brave and patriotic 
men are better than gold. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



A 



LL the armies of 
Europe, Asia, and 
Africa combined, 
with all the treasure 
of the earth (our own excepted) 
in their military chest, with a 
Bonaparte for a commander, 
could not by force take a drink 
from the Ohio or make a track 
on the Blue Ridge in a trial 
of a thousand years. 

Hisses will not blow down 
the walls of justice. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

\ 

A DEFINITION of 
general popular sov- 
ereignty, in the 
abstract, would be 
about this — that each man 
shall do precisely as he pleases 
with himself, and with all 
those things which exclusively 
concern him. Applied to 
Government, this principle 
would be, that a General Gov- 
ernment shall do all those 
things which pertain to it, and 
all local governments shall do 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

precisely as they please in 
respect to those matters which 
exclusively concern them. 

They [the Revolutionary 
fathers] were pillars of the 
temple of liberty; and now 
that they have crumbled away, 
that temple must fall unless 
we, their descendants, supply 
their places with other pillars, 
hewn from the solid quarry of 
sober reason. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

BY general law, life an6l 
limb must be pro- 
tected; yet often a 
limb must be ampu- 
tated to save a life; but a life 
is never wisely given to save 
a limb. 

Let us renew our trust in 
God, and go forward without 
fear and with manly hearts. 

If I have risen, why should 
any be hindered from rising ? 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

CONCEDE that the 
new government of 
Louisiana is only to 
what it should be as 
the egg is to the fowl, we 
shall sooner have the fowl by 
hatching the egg than by 
smashing it. 

It may seem strange that 
any man should dare to ask a 
just God's assistance in wringing 
his bread from the sweat of 
other men's faces. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

DIE when I may, I 
want it said of me 
by those who know 
me best, that I 
always plucked a thistle and 
planted a flower where I 
thought a flower would grow. 

The man who stands by and 
says nothing, when the peril 
of his Government is discussed, 
cannot be misunderstood. If 
not hindered, he is sure to 
help the enemy. 



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11 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

DISCOURAGE litiga- 
tion. Persuade your 
neighbors to com- 
promise whenever 
you can. Point out to them 
how the nominal winner is 
often a real loser — in fees, 
expenses, and waste of time. 
As a peacemaker the lawyer 
has a superior opportunity 
of being a good man. 
There will still be business 
enough. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IF in your judgment you 
cannot be an honest 
lawyer, resolve to be 
honest without being a 
lawyer. Choose some other 
occupation, rather than one in 
the choosing of which you do, 
in advance, consent to be a 
knave. 

One man is offended because 
a road passes over his land, and 
another is offended because it 
does not pass over his. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I HOLD if the Almighty 
had ever made a set of 
men that should do all 
the eating and none of 
the work, he would have 
made them with mouths only, 
and no hands; and if he had 
ever made another class, that 
he had intended should do 
all the work and none of the 
eating, he would have made 
them without mouths and with 
all hands. 



14 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IF I send a man to buy a 
horse for me, I expect 
him to tell me his 

^' points^ ^ not how 

many hairs there are in his tail. 

I would not take any risk 
of being entangled .... like 
an ox jumped half over a fence 
and liable to be torn by dogs 
front and rear without a fair 
chance to gore one way or to 
kick the other. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I UNDERSTAND the 
ship to be made for the 
carrying and the preser- 
vation of the cargo; and, 
so long as the ship can be 
saved with the cargo, it should 
never be abandoned, unless it 
fails the possibility of its pres- 
ervation, and shall cease to 
exist, except at the risk of 
throwing overboard both freight 
and passengers. So long, then, 
as it is possible that the pros- 
perity and the liberties of the 

[ti l i Jl 

16 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

people be preserved in this 
Union, it shall be my purpose, 
at all times, to use all my pow- 
ers to aid in its perpetuation. 

Nothing valuable can be lost 
by taking time. If there be 
an object to hurry any of you, 
in hot haste, to a step which 
you would never take deliber- 
ately, that object will be frus- 
trated by taking time; but no 
good object can be frustrated 
by it. 



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i Worldl)) Wizdom — Lincoln. 17 



P I 1 ^ 

WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IT'S the people^ 5 business, — 
the election is in their 
hands. If they turn their 
backs to the fire, and get 
scorched in the rear, they'll find 
they have got to sit on the 
blister ! 

I have found that when one 
is embarrassed, usually the 
shortest way to get through 
with it is to quit talking or 
thinking about it, and go at 
something else. 

l4 l \ M 

18 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IF you would win a man to 
your cause, first convince 
him that you are his 
sincere friend. Therein 
is a drop of honey that catches 
his heart, which, say what he 
will, is the great highroad to 
his reason, and which, when 
once gained, you will find but 
little trouble in convincing his 
judgment of the justice of your 
cause, if indeed that cause really 
be a just one. On the contrary, 
assume to dictate to his judg- 
ment, or to command his 



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19 



P I I 

WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

action, or to mark him as one 
to be shunned and despised, 
and he will retreat within him- 
self, close all the avenues to his 
head and his heart ; and though 
your cause be naked truth itself, 
transformed to the heaviest 
lance, harder than steel, and 
sharper than steel can be made, 
and though you throw it with 
more than herculean force and 
precision, you shall be no more 
able to pierce him than to 
penetrate the hard shell of a 
tortoise with a rye straw. 

20 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I WOULD despise myself 
if I supposed myself ready 
to deal less liberally with 
an adversary than I was 
willing to be treated myself. 

When a man hears himself 
somewhat misrepresented, it 
provokes him — at least, I find 
it so with myself; but when 
misrepresentation becomes very 
gross and palpable, it is more 
apt to amuse him. 



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21 



P I 1 ^1 

WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I BELIEVE each individual 
is naturally entitled to do 
as he pleases with himself 
and the fruit of his labor, 
so far as it in no wise interferes 
with any other man's rights. 

We can succeed only by 
concert. It is not *' Can any 
of us imagine better?" but, 
"Can we all do better?" 

Important principles must 
be inflexible. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IF I saw a venomous snake 
crawling in the road, any 
man would say I might 
seize the nearest stick and 
kill it; but if I found that 
snake in bed with my children, 
that would be another question. 
I might hurt the children more 
than the snake, and it might 
bite them. Much more, if I 
found it in bed with my neigh- 
bor's children, and I had bound 
myself by a solemn compact 
not to meddle with his children 



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P I m 

WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

under any circumstances, it 
would become me to let that 
particular mode of getting rid 
of the gentleman alone. But 
if there was a bed newly made 
up, to which the children were 
to be taken, and it was pro- 
posed to take a batch of young 
snakes and put them there with 
them, I take it no man would 
say there was any question how 
I ought to decide! 

The plainest print cannot be 
read through a gold eagle. 

24- 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I SAY, that, whereas God 
Almighty has given every 
man one mouth to be 
fed, and one pair of hands 
adapted to furnish food for that 
mouth, if any thing can be 
proved to be the will of Heaven, 
it is proved by this fact, that 
that mouth is to be fed by 
those hands, without being 
interfered with by any other 
man, who has also his mouth 
to feed, and his hands to 
labor with. 



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25 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I HAVE said nothing but 
what I am wilHng to 
Uve by, and if it be the 
pleasure of Almighty 
God, Jie by, 

I am not bound to win, but 
I am bound to be true. I am 
not bound to succeed, but I 
am bound to live up to the 
light I have. 

I am nothing, but Truth is 
everything. 



26 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I CAN no more be per- 
suaded that the Govern- 
ment can constitutionally 
take no strong measures 
in time of rebellion, because 
it can be shown that the same 
could not be lawfully taken in 
time of peace, than I can be 
persuaded that a particular 
drug is not good medicine for 
a sick man, because it can be 
shown not to be good food for 
a well one. 



27 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IN times like the present 
men should utter nothing 
for which they would not 
willingly be responsible 
through time and in eternity. 

I must study the plain ^ phys- 
ical facts of the case^ ascertain 
what is possible, and learn what 
appears to be wise and right. 

I shall do nothing in malice. 
What I deal with is too vast 
for malicious dealing. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IT has been said, ** all that 
a man hath he will give 
for his life;" and, while 
all contribute to their 
substance, the soldier puts his 
life at stake, and often yields 
it up in his country's cause. 
The highest merit, then, is 
due the soldier. 

I claim not to have con- 
trolled events, but confess 
plainly that events have con- 
trolled me. 



J^D 



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29 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

JUDICIAL decisions have 
two uses: First, To ab- 
solutely determine the 
case decided; and, Sec- 
ondly, To indicate to the pub- 
lic how other similar cases will 
be decided when they arise. 

May the vast future not 
have to lament that you have 
neglected it ! 

The proneness of prosperity 
is to breed tyrants. 



30 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

1ET reverence for the laws 
be breathed by every 
^ American mother to 
the lisping babe that 
prattles on her lap ; let it be 
taught in schools, in seminaries, 
and in colleges; let it be writ- 
ten in primers, spelling-books, 
and in almanacs; let it be 
preached from the pulpit, pro- 
claimed in legislative halls, and 
enforced in courts of justice. 
And, in short, let it become 
the political religion of the 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

nation; and let the old and the 
young, the rich and the poor, 
the grave and the gay of all 
sexes and tongues and colors 
and conditions, sacrifice unceas- 
ingly upon its altars. 

No work — no object — can ^ 
be so general as to dispense its 
benefits with precise equality. 

Bad promises are better 
broken than kept. 



32 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IET US have that faith 
that right makes 
^ might, and in that 
faith let us, to the 
end, dare to do our duty as 
we understand it. 

Let no man who is house- 
less pull down the house of 
another, but let him labor 
diligently and build one for 
himself, thus by example assur- 
ing that his own will be safe 
from violence when built. 



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■Worldlo Witdom— Lincoln, 33 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

1ABOR is the superior of 
capital, and deserves 
^ much the higher con- 
sideration. Capital 
has its rights, which are as 
worthy of protection as any 
other rights. Nor is it denied 
that there is, and probably 
always will be, a relation be- 
tween labor and capital, pro- 
ducing mutual benefits. 

Broken eggs cannot be 
mended. 



34 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IET the nation take hold 
ot the larger works, 
^ and the States the 
smaller ones; and 
thus, working in a meeting 
direction, discreetly, but steadily 
andlirmly, what is made unequal 
in one place may be equalized in 
another, extravagance avoided, 
and the whole country put on 
that career of prosperity which 
shall correspond with its extent 
of territory, its natural re- 
sources, and the intelligence 
and enterprise of its people. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

N^ EVER Stir up litiga- 
tion. A worse 
man can scarcely 
be found than one 
who does this. 

Advancement — improve- 
ment in condition — is the 
order of things in a society 
of equals. 

Why, as to improvements, 
magnify the evily and stoutly 
refuse to see any good in them ? 



36 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

NO men living are more 
worthy to be trusted 
than those who toil 
up from poverty ; 
none less inclined to take or 
touch aught which they have 
not honestly earned. 

The true rule, in determin- 
ing to embrace or reject any 
thing, is not whether it have 
any evil in it, but whether 
it have more of evil than 
of good. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

OUR people are fast 
approaching the 
point where it can 
be said that seven- 
eighths of them are trying to 
find out how to live at the 
expense of the other eighth. 

The smallest are often the 
most difficult things to deal 
with. 

Were it not for an occa- 
sional joke, I should die. 



38 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

OUR government rests 
in public opinion. 
Whoever can change 
public opinion can 
change the government prac- 
tically just so much. 

As to the young men. You 
must not v^ait to be brought 
forward by the older men. 
For instance, do you suppose 
that I should ever have got 
into notice if I had waited to 
be hunted up and pushed for- 
ward by older men? 



39 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

PERSISTING in a 
charge which one does 
not know to be true, 
is simply malicious 
slander. 

If both factions, or neither, 
shall abuse you, you will prob- 
ably be about right. Beware 
of being assailed by one, and 
praised by the other. 

It is not best to swap horses 
while crossing the river. 



40 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

REPEAL the Missouri 
Compromise; repeal 
all compromise; re- 
peal the Declaration 
of Independence; repeal all 
past history, — you still cannot 
repeal human nature. 

I do not want to issue a 
document that the whole world 
will see must necessarily be 
inoperative, like the Pope's 
bull against the comet. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

STAND with anybody 
that stands right. 
Stand with him while 
he is right, and part 
with him when he goes wrong. 

I could scarcely credit that I, 
a poor boy, had earned a dollar 
in less than a day, — that by 
honest work I had earned a dol- 
lar. The world seemed wider 
and fairer before me. I was 
a more hopeful and confident 
being from that time. 



42 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

SLAVERY is founded in 
the selfishness of man's 
nature; opposition to 
it, in his love of justice. 
These principles are an eternal 
antagonism; and when brought 
into collision, so fiercely as 
slavery extension brings them, 
shocks, throes, and convulsions 
must ceaselessly follow. 

People of any color seldom 
run unless there be something 
to run from. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THE purposes of the 
Almighty are perfect 
and must prevail, 
though we erring 
mortals may fail to accurately 
perfect them in advance. 

God must like the common 
people, or he would not have 
made so many of them. 

The dogmas ' of the quiet 
past are inadequate to the 
stormy present. 



44 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THE shepherd drives 
the wolf from the 
sheep's throat, for 
which the sheep 
thanks the shepherd as a liber- 
ator; while the wolf denounces 
him, for the same act, as the 
destroyer of liberty, especially 
as the sheep was a black one. 
Plainly, the sheep and the wolf 
are not agreed upon the word 
** liberty"; and precisely the 
same difference prevails to-day 
among us human creatures. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

even in the North, and all 
professing to love liberty. 

It has been said that one bad 
general is better than two good 
ones; and the saying is true, if 
taken to mean no more than 
that an army is better directed 
by a single mind, though in- 
ferior, than by two superior 
ones at variance and cross-pur- 
poses with each other. 



46 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

TO remove a man is 
very easy, but when 
I go to fill his 
place there are twenty 
applicants, and of these I must 
make nineteen enemies. 

The Government must not 
undertake to run the churches. 

War, at the best, is terrible. 

One war at a time. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THE Saviour, I suppose, 
did not expect that 
any human creature 
could be perfect as 
the Father in Heaven; but 
He said, **As your Father in 
Heaven is perfect, be ye also 
perfect." He set that up as a 
standard, and he who did most 
toward reaching that standard 
attained the highest degree of 
moral perfection. 

Keep pegging away. 



48 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THERE may be . . . 
dangers; but I guess 
it wouldn't improve 
things any to publish 
that we were afraid of them 
in advance. 

We don't read that Hannibal 
had any money to prosecute his 
wars with. 

I choose always to make my 
** statute of limitations" a 
short one. 



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•Worldly IVisdom— Lincoln. 49 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THERE'S a mighty 
amount of character 
in sticks, . . . Have 
you ever noticed how 
a stick in one's band will 
change his appearance? 

A jury too frequently has at 
least one member more ready 
to hang the panel than to 
hang the traitor. 

I can't take pay for doing 
my duty. 



50 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



T^ERE is not a more 
fatal error to young 
lawyers than relying 
too much on speech- 
making. If any one, upon his 
rare powers of speaking, shall 
claim an exemption from the 
drudgery of the law, his case 
is a failure in advance. 

My old father used to have 
a saying that ''If you make a 
bad bargain, hug it all the 
tighter." 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THE prudent, penniless 
beginner in the world 
labors for wages for 
awhile, saves a surplus 
with which to buy tools or 
land for himself, then labors 
for himself another while, and 
at length hires another new 
beginner to help him. This 
is the just, and generous, and 
prosperous system, which opens 
the way to all, gives hope to 
all, and consequent energy, and 
progress, and improvement of 
condition to all. 



52 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THE way for a young 
man to rise is to im- 
prove himself every 
way he can, never 
suspecting that anybody wishes 
to hinder him. 

Allow me to assure you that 
suspicion and jealousy never did 
help any man in any situation. 

There is no grievance that 
is a fit object of redress by 
mob law. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THERE may sometimes 
be ungenerous at- 
tempts to keep a 
young man down; 
and they will succeed, too, if 
he allows his mind to be 
diverted from its true channel 
to brood over the attempted 
injury. Cast about, and see if 
this feeling has not injured 
every person you have ever 
known to fall into it. 

We cannot escape history. 



54 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THERE are few things 
wholly evil or wholly 
good. Almost every 
thing, especially of 
governmental policy, is an in- 
separable compound of the 
two ; so that our best judgment 
of the preponderance between 
them is continually demanded. 

Your thousand pretenses for 
not getting along better are 
all nonsense; they deceive 
nobody but yourself. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THE leading rule for 
the lawyer, as for the 
man of every other 
calling, is diligence. 
Leave nothing for to-morrow 
which can be done to-day. 
Never let your correspondence 
fall behind. Whatever piece 
of business you have in hand, 
before stopping, do all the 
labor pertaining to it which 
can then be done. 

The majority should rule. 

56 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THE will of God pre- 
vails. In great con- 
tests each party claims 
to act in accordance 
with the will of God. Both 
may be, and one must be, 
wrong. God cannot be for 
and against the same thing at 
the same time. 

Men are not flattered by 
being shown that there has been 
a difference of purpose between 
the Almighty and them. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

WHILE the people 
retain their virtue 
and vigilance, no 
administration, by 
any extreme wickedness or 
folly, can very seriously injure 
the Government in the short 
space of four years. 

Time alone releases a debtor 
nation, so long as its popula- 
tion increases faster than un- 
paid interest accumulates on 
its debt. 



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58 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

WHAT is the in- 
fluence of fashion 
but the influence 
that other people's 
actions have on our actions — 
the strong inclination each of 
us feels to do as we see all our 
neighbors do? 

If destruction be our lot we 
must ourselves be its author 
and finisher. As a nation of 
freemen we must live through 
all time, or die by suicide. 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

WITH public senti- 
ment, nothing can 
fail; without it 
nothing can suc- 
ceed. Consequently, he who 
moulds public sentiment, goes 
deeper than he who enacts 
statutes or pronounces decisions. 
He makes statutes and decisions 
possible or impossible to be 
executed. 

I can bear censure, but not 
insult. 



60 



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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

WHENEVER I hear 
anyone arguing for 
slavery, I feel a 
strong impulse to 
see it tried on him personally. 

Stand by your principles, 
stand by your guns, and victory, 
complete and permanent, is 
sure at the last. 

Nothing is so local as not to 
be ot some general benefit. 

— ^M^ if 

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WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

WOULD you drop 
the war where it 
is? or would you 
prosecute it in 
future with elder -stalk squirts 
charged with rose-water? 

Determine that the thing 
can and shall be done, and then 
we shall find the way. 

The struggle of to-day is not 
altogether for to-day: it is for 
a vast future also. 



62 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

WE all declare for 
liberty; but in using 
the same word we 
do not all mean 
the same thing. 

Shall he who cannot do 
much be for that reason ex- 
cused if he do nothing ? 

If the end brings me out 
all right, what is said against 
me won't amount to anything. 



q 



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63 



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^ 



WORLDLY WISDOM 

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

YOU will find that all 
the arguments in 
favor of king-craft 
were of this class; 
that they always bestrode the 
necks of the people, not he- 
cause they wanted to do it, but 
because the people were better 
off for being ridden. 

Is it the true test of the 
soundness of a doctrine, that 
in some places people won't 
let you proclaim it ? 



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--3? 



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